


Already There

by Gabby



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Essentially what I would LOVE to happen next season, F/M, Fluff, Hiatus fic, Short & Sweet, Who even cares?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-01-25 18:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1657526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabby/pseuds/Gabby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> It had taken him a lot of courage to say what he'd said. So, the way she sees it, she owes him this.</i> Or when Amy learns to not predict how things will go after her partner comes back to the Nine-Nine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Already There

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know I've been writing a bunch of 'Amy realizing her feelings over the next six months while Jake's gone' type schtick and thought of writing a little different (but, also not _that_ different) and no, it's not at all angsty/sad kinda crap thing, I promise you that, okay? I just wanted to try this. And also, I don't know what the hell but, I think for the rest of hiatus I'll just be doling out little short one-shots instead of really long, thought out ones (I know, I know) so, bear with me, here.
> 
> Also, for right now, this is intended to just be a one-shot and I'm not sure if it will be continued so, don't ask me. Please don't ask me. I don't like being pressured.

She doesn't think she should be doing this. She _definitely_ should not be doing this. Amy thinks as she heads toward the breakroom where she's sure her newly re-minted partner is getting his fill of the precinct brew. Her mind whirling. Her heart racing.

See, Jake Peralta (said partner) has been back at the 99 for basically a day.

A day in which she'd practically avoided him.

Which is, admittedly, not cool. Not cool _at all_.

She hadn't meant to do it. It'd just happened that way.

He had arrived to cheers and teary welcomes (oh, _Boyle_ ) and smiles from his colleagues and although Amy had participated slightly in that fanfare, she had all but, disappeared by mid-afternoon.

She'd just needed time to think, is all.  

And now here she is. At work. About to face him.

Which, you know, she's gonna have to, at some point.

And although, it's like it's been only yesterday when he'd bared all in the station parking lot, she finds herself feeling much the same regarding him: Confused. Stupid. Surprised. Oddly nervous.

Emotions clouded by other, newer ones. Excitement. Trepidation. Happiness.

She hadn't known what to say to him then. She doesn't know what to say to him now.

But, she'll get there... hopefully.

It had taken him a lot of courage to say what he'd said. So, the way she sees it, she owes him this.

She stops at the entrance of the breakroom, he urge to turn right back around and postpone this whole thing for another time already taking hold and god, is it possible to sweat from the inside out?

But, she shakes off the anxiety, plants her feet firmly... and pauses.

He's just where she'd thought he would be. At the coffee station. Preparing some precinct brew, his back turned to her and she realizes just how big heap of trouble she's currently in when she finds herself watching his muscles move under the red checkered button-down he's sporting. Wondering shamelessly if he's wearing a t-shirt underneath. The obvious stretch of skin moving beneath his clothes doing awful things to her imagination.

"What?"

She honest to god jumps a little as his voice breaks the quiet of the early morning hush - it's _very_ early and the precinct is _empty_ and that's why she'd thought to give this whole talking thing a try - and she attempts to open her mouth but, nothing comes out.

"Are you gonna say something?"

She watches as he turns to face her. His arms crossing over his chest. Eyes gleaming in her direction.

He seems... different somehow since he's been back. She can't quite put her finger on exactly what it is but, it's just there. In the way he moves. The way he carries himself. The... aura of him. The posture. It all seems so oddly out of place to her that she knows, deep down, that the person in front of her is in fact not the same man who'd confessed those beautifully, _romantically_ earnest and confusing words to her on that cool, spring night six months ago.

He's still the same but, not really.

And she has no idea what to do with that.

"Hi." Okay, good. She's off to a good start there.

He smiles, slow and wide. Amused, she can tell. "Hey."

She really couldn't tell you why but, on impulse, she turns and closes the door behind her. Gathering up her courage.

She turns. Crosses her arms around her chest. "How've you been?"

He shrugs, his smile gone from his eyes before the demand meets his mouth. "Oh, you know. Working out. Being on the grind. Putting myself in danger. The usual."

Her stomach drops at the thought. "That's not what I-"

"I know." He nods, eyes a little solemn. "I know."

They hold each other's gaze for a long while she tries brave up, hands clenching and loosening at her sides. Cringing as she feels them become clammy from sweat. Straightening to look her partner in the eye. "I wanna... talk to you about what you said before you left." She's able to utter after a long silence, giving herself a mental pat on the back when her voice sounds a lot steadier than she actually feels because yeah. "If that's okay?" She adds needlessly, the question mark so clear in her words that she nearly winces with the meekness of it all.

He says nothing, eyes unreadable yet focused _solely_ on her.

It grates her nerves, to be honest. "It's just that I..." She stutters. "... I really wasn't expecting what you told me." She lets out, holding onto that still carefully expressionless look on his face. Which is freaking her out right now. Because it's Jake and there's always something and of course, he's always been a little more than guarded and she knows after three years of them working together that his goofy, off the wall antics can sometimes be a cover of sorts, this isn't jelling well the man she thinks she knows so well. This isn't easing her anxiety even a little bit.

"I just can't help but, think..." She ambles on, courage striking a match inside her. "... That I've been a little... blind." She manages, just barely yanking the word out of her own throat. Feeling her cheeks burn in embarrassment at her own thoughts that have barraged her mind for the past six months. The fact that she'd been so oblivious. So _fucking_ blind.

But, most of all, she feels stupid. Which she doesn't appreciate feeling.

Even in her most foolish moments in life, she'd never once felt stupid.

"I didn't know that you felt the way that you did." She adds, looking down at the floor and then up at Jake's expressionless face again, her insides squirming. "I wasn't looking at you. I was looking at other things. And then, Teddy..." She has no idea why she chooses to bring up her ex but, as she sees her partner's jaw go visibly tight, she knows it's not exactly a wise choice.

"Anyway." She amends quickly. "I just came in here to tell you..." She tries saying only to stumble once more and tries again. "I - What I mean to say is-"

"Amy." She ends what is promising to become a good stream of rambling and looks at him, eyes wide. "Just... stop it."

The inflection of exasperation in his voice is what catches her notice. "Jake I-"

"Yeah. No." He waves an impatient hand between them. "I get that you-" He stops himself in the middle and eyes her intently. Her breath stopping at the determination written on his face. "I have something I need to say now."

She has no idea what exactly is going on with her as she feels herself mutely nod. Her stomach and throat coated with something acidic enough to keep her surprisingly compliant and quiet.

It's probably a new type of anxiety.

Wouldn't be the first time.

"I know I kind of... caught you off guard a little bit." He starts, the corners of his lips lifting upwards ever so slightly and her throat constricts into itself when he takes a step closer, the move so confident that she has to tamp down her nerves and stay where she is, her insides quaking horribly. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way. It's just... like I said, I didn't know what was gonna happen on that op." He shrugs, though she could see the darkening of his eyes as he mentions the FBI-sanctioned life rearrangement that had taken them away from each other for so long and she wants to ask him, point blank, what had occurred. What had happened to scrape apart those little bits and pieces of him she'd known so well before and replace them with something else entirely. "And I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least let you know how I felt."

"Although..." He adds, a tiny frown appearing between his eyes as he looks off and away from her. "I didn't exactly tell you how I felt as much I threw out that whole romantic stylez thing." He shakes his head as if reprimanding himself. "Which was stupid, I don't know why I-"

"Jake-"

"Anyway, my point is..." He continues, shaking his head again, in a jerky fashion. "...I didn't mean to spring all that on you before I left." He says with as much sincerity as she's used to seeing from him. "I'm _not_ sorry I said it. I'm just sorry for the way it came out. The whole romantic stylez... It just - It wasn't how I pictured telling you." He amends, his face serious and gaze intense as he looks at her. "You deserve better than that. Not something you probably thought was another stupid joke from me."

Her eyes flicker down to her feet. She had thought that. At least briefly.

"I never wanted you to doubt that I was serious - _am_ serious - about that." He takes another step closer, the intent back, and she struggles to get the air back in the room as he stares at her, eyes dark and penetrating. As if she's the only thing in existence. "About you."

"Jake..." She breathes because whoa. She's not - Where is this - ?

"I missed you." He interrupts softly, the guard obliterating from his gaze, only affection and a kind of tenderness left in it's wake, and she flushes with all that unbridled attention focused solely on her. "It was basically the main thing that kept me going. The whole idea of coming back to you. I thought about you everyday-"

"Jake-"

"I'm not giving up." The surprise on his face after he's said those words gives her a good indication that he hadn't been prepared to say them at this particular moment but, he recovers before she could say anything. "I'm sorry." He adds, not sounding even a little bit apologetic. "I don't know what your situation is right now."

Her situation meaning her relationship status, she could tell, because he gets a little green when he says it.

"But..." He continues, his back straightening. His intensity sharper. "... I think - I know - that _this_..." He gestures between them. "...isn't something I made up. Isn't something completely one-sided. And I don't wanna rush you." He counters gently and her heart trembles at the slight quirk at the sides of his mouth going up. "I don't. I just wanna let you know that we could be good together." Her breath hitches at the mere thought of it. "At least I think so."

She wants to tell him. Reassure him that there is no one else. That there hasn't been since a month in a half after he'd gone away. That she's thought about - _hoped_ for - something like this in his long absence. The ensuing solitude of her own mind.

But, instead, she stands there. Her throat tight. Her heart thumping like a dull drum.

"But, until then..." He adds after they take a moment for her to digest his words. "... Just know that I'm already there." He says meaningfully, his dark eyes meeting her own. Burning her. Seeing through her. "If you ever wanna be, too."

She takes this in. Her heart and mind whirling as she opens her mouth to say something when-

"Looks like we got work to do." He suddenly says, gaze shifting from her to the clear glass door behind them. Almost certainly seeing their co-workers pile into the precinct.

He looks back at her, eyes glinting, causing her stomach to flip flop. "I'll see you at our desk?"

She knows then and there though this whole discussion is being shelved for now, that they're most assuredly not forgetting about it and after he's left in her in the breakroom, she barely has the forethought to hide the smile that threatens to cross her lips.

Which makes her realize that whatever waiting period he thinks he's in for probably won't be _that_ long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!! :) I was nervous about this one and I know it's been a while. I will try to write more consistently from now on. Key word here being _try_. ;)


End file.
